'Infinite Jest' Author David Foster Wallace

David Foster Wallace once described his essays as "experiential postcards." (Getty Images)

Acclaimed novelist and essayist David Foster Wallace, 46, was found dead in his home Sept. 12; reports attribute his death to suicide.

His 1996 novel Infinite Jest was a critical and popular success, while in recent years he has written short-stories and nonfiction. And he wrote a celebrated Rolling Stone profile of John McCain in 2000; it was revised and this year as McCain's Promise: Aboard the Straight Talk Express With John McCain and a Whole Bunch of Actual Reporters, Thinking About Hope.

Wallace was awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant in 1997. Fresh Air remembers him with an excerpt from an interview that initially aired on March 5 of that year.